Labuan Bajo

Hi all!

I flew to Labuan Bajo over the weekend for a short getaway towards the end of August and it was wonderful. Flying over was pretty interesting…we had to walk on the tarmac to get on the plane in Singapore (which was a first for me in Singapore airport). Then my luggage came out during transit when it was supposed to be put straight through to Labuan Bajo. Our hotel driver arrived late to pick us up, so we were surrounded by taxi drivers who were hounding us to take up their cab rides.

After we were all settled in, we walked about the island (really small) and came across one of the harbours situated near our hotel.

The thing about this place is that it is still in it is developing phase. So it is not as crowded when compared to say Bali. But you can tell it’s headed in that direction when the food here is more Westernised in nature.

Fried goreng pisang (fried banana fritters) sold along the road. Their banana (the green type when ripe) is different from ours, slightly less sweet, slightly tougher. Didn’t form a really good goreng pisang.

A noodle cart.

Each time you walk pass a laundry place, there’s this strong smell of fragrance that wafts pass. Not a good place to wash your clothes if you are sensitive to strong scents.

The dried fish market. Really strong fishy smell and this was as far as I could go. There’s baskets of dried fish being sold. And lots of flies.

Ended the day with dinner at La Cucina, where there was a wonderful view of the sunset. The food was also really good and it was here we discovered how fragrant their black pepper was. I brought back 4 bottles.

La Cucina. Address: Jl Soekarno Hatta, Labuan Bajo, Flores 86554, Indonesia

Free bread platter. Though the bread was stale so the sides was pretty tough. But the bun (white part) itself when pretty well with the olive oil and balsamic vinegar combo.

My tuna pasta! It’s really good with tuna chunks (instead of the flaky canned tuna) and tasted even better when topped with their black pepper!

A look of the restaurant from the harbour and a closer view of the sunset.

There was this pasar malam just round the corner of our hotel and we had dinner here one night. My friend was craving ikan bakar really badly. The interesting thing is you can choose your fish here form  the stalls and have it cooked for you. But you need to choose the correct type for each dish. My friend chose a fish that had too many bones and the flesh was sticky to the bones so it made it hard to eat the meal. It was a good was to end our day and till the next post, bye!